Elle Driver
| last= }} Elle Driver was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, known by her code-name California Mountain Snake, and by her missing eye, covered by an eyepatch. Elle had some kind of sexual relations with Bill, unlike Beatrix, who was Bill's girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. After a long improvised weapons fight in Budd's trailer, Elle was defeated by Beatrix, who snatched out her other eye. Personality Elle is the least sympathetic and seemingly the cruelest of the Deadly Vipers, killing for her own pleasure, however she is able to recognize and respect skill, as she does with Beatrix. She is also extremely ambitious being protective over Bill, but not being above using him to achieve her own gruesome ends. Biography Elle originally worked for Interpol and was sent on an assignment to capture or assassinate Bill. When she actually tracked him down she ended falling in love with him despite the fact he was dating Beatrix. So he offered her a job as an elite assassin and she accepted the offer just so she could be around him. Pai Mei's training plucks Elle's right eye out.]] Elle, much like Bill and Beatrix, was Pai Mei's student. Some time after Beatrix had finished her training, Bill sent Elle to Pai Mei next. Unlike Beatrix, who was somewhat humble, Elle apparently was the opposite, being a rash, badmouthed pupil. During her training, Elle called Pai Mei a "miserable old fool"; insulted, Pai Mei plucked out Elle's right eye. One night, Pai Mei asked Elle to cook fish heads for him, and in retaliation for removing her eye, Elle poisoned her master's favorite dish, killing him. Whether her training with Pai Mei has ended before the incident, or if she was punished by Bill for killing Pai Mei, was unknown. Massacre During their days as members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, Elle and Beatrix had a hostile relationship, both competing to be Bill's lover and second-in-command. Elle, along with Budd, Vernita and O-Ren, arrived at El Paso and killed all of the eight people who attended Beatrix's wedding dress rehearsal. After abusing the helpless Beatrix, Elle stood above her bloody body, as Bill approached her and shot her in the head. Post-Massacre .]] After the massacre, Elle was assigned by Bill to kill Beatrix, who revealed to be in a comatose state since the massacre. She headed to the hospital where Beatrix was stationed, and dressed up as a nurse, heading to Beatrix's room. Upon Beatrix's body, Elle stated that despite their mutual disdain for each other, she nonetheless respected her. Seconds before injecting the poison to the life support system, Bill contacted Elle and ordered her to abort the mission, claiming that Beatrix deserved a better death than being killed in her sleep. Infuriated, Elle half-heartedly agreed, and aborted the mission. Making a Deal with Budd .]] As Elle has been devoted to Bill for years, doing his work and carrying out the DVAS name, she would later receive a call from Budd, informing her that he had aqquired a Hanzō sword after brutally shooting Beatrix in the chest with a 12g shotgun. On the phone, he told her to get her "boney ass" down to Texas with a million dollars in cash by sunrise, in exchange for the sword. Elle showed up at Budd's front door with a red suitcase, appearing to contain the promised amount. As Elle sat down, she asked to see the sword, and Budd, obviously mesmerized by the suit case, obliged. .]] Budd asked Elle about her feelings, now that her enemy is finally dead, wondering if she was filled with regret, or relief. As Elle enigmatically replied she felt both, Budd opened the suitcase and ruffled through the money, only to find out that Elle had hidden a Black Mamba snake in about the middle of the case. The snake viciously bit Budd in the face three times. Budd fell to the ground, screaming as his body began to shut down. Elle apologized for being so rude, while pulling out a cigarette and a black notepad and began to mock Budd by reading out loud facts about the Black Mamba and the side-effects of its poison. At this point, Elle confessed that her biggest feeling was regret, that the "greatest warrior she had ever met" met her end at the hands of a "bush-whackin', scrub, alkie piece of shit like you (Budd)." Moments later, the agonizing Budd dies, and Elle collected her suitcase filled with money and called Bill, telling him that she had found his brother dead after getting attacked by "a Black Mamba" (an allusion to Beatrix's Deadly Viper codename) and took credit for the supposed death of Beatrix Kiddo. Facing Beatrix As she was leaving Budd's trailer, Elle was kicked back in by Beatrix. This led to a brutal, violent battle between the two vixens. Elle wielded Beatrix's Hanzō katana, yet she couldn't get it out of the scabbard due to the cramped space of Budd's trailer and Beatrix's frenzied attacks. During this unarmed phase of the fight, Beatrix meted out considerable damage to Elle, including beating, punching, kicking, choking and at one point even dunking Elle's head down the toilet. This last attack could well have been fatal, had Elle not had the presence of mind to pull the flush, thus emptying the water for a life sustaining moment, however Elle dealt a lot of damage to Beatrix during the fight including Elle kicking Beatrix in several places including her foot, her shin, her chest and her face. Elle seemingly had the advantage in the living room however when they moved into the bathroom Beatrix got the upper hand, once Elle forced Beatrix into the hall and kicked her to the other end of the trailer she was able to draw her weapon, which appeared to be a decisive advantage. Amazingly though, Beatrix spotted a katana innocently nestled amongst a bag of golf clubs. It turned out to be the Hattori Hanzō sword that Bill gave Budd, which he later claimed he had pawned. The blade was etched with a revealing message: "To My Brother Budd, The Only Man I Ever Loved, - Bill". .]] The lull in the action was about to be over, as Elle and Beatrix were face to face with two swords; Elle armed with Beatrix's sword, and Beatrix armed with Budd's. Before the two were about to have their final duel, Elle admitted that she poisoned and killed Pai Mei in revenge for tearing out her eye years earlier. The two stare each other down and finally attack in a clash of blades, locking their swords together in a seeming stalemate. Elle seemed confident that she will overpower her vengeful opponent, until Beatrix deployed an unexpected attack by swiftly plucking Elle's remaining eye out with her free hand. Totally blind, Elle shrieked and stumbled backward into the bathroom, wildly thrashing around on the floor. Beatrix, meanwhile, has kept hold of the perfectly intact eye, dropping it to the floor and squishing it with her bare feet. While Elle continues to wander aimlessly, Beatrix exits the trailer, leaving her for dead. Elle's fate remains unknown. While the implication is that she would be killed by the Black Mamba snake, as it is shown hissing and guarding the exit as Beatrix left, during the credits of Vol. 2, as the names of the Deadly Viper assassination Squad were crossed off, Elle's was presented with a question mark. Skills *'Hand-to-Hand Combat:' Elle was trained by Pai Mei so she must have been extremely proficient in combat. Her fighting style is very similar to the Spouse's, adopting brutal, direct blows to stun and wound the enemy. When very close to the enemy she resorts to punches, but she uses kicks if blocked or cornered to knock her foe away from her, or to deliver a particularly violent blow against an incapacitated enemy. In the confrontation with Beatrix, an extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant herself, she held the upper hand most of the time. *'Poison Mastery: '''She is seen on three separate occasions having, or being on the verge of poisoning someone. We see her at first sneaking into a hospital to try and poison Beatrix, we then see her use a Black Mamba to kill Budd and it is later revealed that she managed to somehow fool Pai Mei and poison him. It seems that she is proficient at procuring and mixing poisons. *'Swordsmanship:' Despite her superiority in bare-handed fighting and the inability to sheat a sword in the small cabin, when confronting Beatrix she tried numerous times to use the latter's sword. Little is known about her skills with it; however, since she had enough confidence to cross weapons with the Spouse and wanting her katana at any cost, it can be assumed that she was at least fairly proficient in Samurai kenjutsu. *'Deception: She was able to lie convincingly about Beatrix's death to Bill, as well as to avoid suspicion from Budd leading him into a lethal trap. She also persuaded Pai Mei to eat the poisoned fish heads that eventualy killed him. *'''Miscellanous skills: In terms of sheer physical strenght she was superior to even the likes of Beatrix, as seen clearly during their showdown. A further testament to her abilities is that she wasn't incapacitated at all by the loss of an eye. She has high speed and stamina, and considers herself to be superior to her fellow assassin Budd, expressing regret because the Spouse was killed by someone like him. Trivia *The fight between Elle and Beatrix won "best fight" at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. *Daryl Hannah won a Saturn award for her performance as Elle Driver. *Tarantino has commented that any potential sequel to Kill Bill would see Nikki Green face the Bride after training from Elle and Sofie Fatale. Category:Characters Category:Deadly Viper Assassination Squad Category:Deceased characters